Holy Cross says more than 2,000 people who were not eligible for COVID-19 vaccine could have enrolled

Holy Cross Health said on Saturday that more than 2,000 people ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have signed up, after vaccine-eligible staff mistakenly encouraged their friends and family to get the vaccine.

Kristin Feliciano, head of strategy for Holy Cross, wrote in a statement on Saturday that Holy Cross was vaccinating Group 1A, which includes hospital workers, medical providers, first responders and residents and employees of retirement homes.

Feliciano wrote that the hospital system, which includes Silver Spring and Germantown hospitals, emailed all “colleagues and active medical staff” on Wednesday with a link to sign up for a vaccination window. via PrepMod – an online system the state uses to schedule appointments.

“This email was for Group 1a – all of our colleagues and active medical staff,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, one or more of them passed their email on to their friends and family and they are now circulating throughout the community. More than 2,000 community members have registered for spaces for our healthcare professionals that they should never have been eligible for. ”

Feliciano said in an interview with Bethesda Beat that the registration emails were marked “this is for you” but did not explicitly say not to share them with others.

“So I guess we are learning a lesson that we need to put forward about our business,” she said.

Feliciano said the leaders of the Holy Cross realized what was happening on Friday.

“We didn’t realize it was as big as it was until we could get into the state’s PrepMod system. This is how we realized that for Monday’s clinic we had over 600 people registered, and only 158 of them were our colleagues, ”she said.

Feliciano said similar issues with vaccine-eligible healthcare workers sharing registration information with friends and family have also been reported in Howard County.

Feliciano wrote in his statement on Saturday that Holy Cross is alerting the community with emails and via social media, and is working with the state and PrepMod to cancel appointments that people not eligible for the vaccine have signed up for.

“We understand and are grateful for the community’s enthusiasm for getting vaccinated. We are working with county and state representatives to support this vaccination when the time comes, ”she wrote.

Dan Schere can be reached at [email protected]